


Nico Loses an Argument and Will Won't Stop Flirting

by orphan_account



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-04
Updated: 2018-07-04
Packaged: 2019-06-05 04:26:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,944
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15162644
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: literally the title





	Nico Loses an Argument and Will Won't Stop Flirting

There were reasons Nico hated camp and this was one of them. 

War was clenching the insides of everybody’s throats. Weariness, and frustration, and the need to cry out every second of the day settled heavily around camp. 

And Nico was feeling worse than ever. The Underworld- although depressing and hellish- had been familiar; a place Nico knew. But things changed, the world is back in war, and this time, not even the Underworld was safe. The order of death became total chaos. Paths broke down, people found new ways around the rules, and nothing made sense anymore. 

 And it was no longer safe for Nico to be around his father.

 And as hard as it was, Nico was forced to choose a place to stay.

 And unfortunately, his only options were Camp Half Blood or Camp Jupiter. Considering Camp Jupiter must’ve realized by now that he’s half-Greek, going there would be certain death, slightly worse than the near-certain death that Half Blood was.

 To make things even more hellish, nearing the end of the camp council meeting, Chiron had come up with a clop behind Nico- “There’s a new camper that’d just arrived. I’d like you to give a tour of the facilities. It’ll give you a chance to… interact. Expand. Take a break.”

 Nico’s glare singed the air. “I really don’t think that’s a good idea,” Nico deadpanned.

 Chiron gave a wary, silent glance for a very long, thin silent pause. People still continued to talk, play ping pong with themselves, light various items around the room on fire, but the second Nico spoke, the scattered head counselors glanced over their shoulders.

 Nico felt like lighting something on fire himself.

 Chiron, after the silence, gave one short, tired chuckle. 

  “Oh, you’ll do fine, I’m sure. You know the premises.”

  “I’ve never stayed here longer than a month.”

  “That’s enough.”

  The council shuffled, fidgety. Nobody knew how to act around Nico, and Nico hated himself and the world for it. To make things worse, it wasn’t anybody’s fault that Nico fit in. He just… didn’t.

  “Do you want the camper to run in terror? Because if that’s what you mean by ‘enough’ and 'doing fine’, then sure, yeah, I fit those descriptions.”

  “Nico-” Chiron started to say, in that tone that made Nico want to roll his eyes, or slam his fists into the wall, or travel down to the Underworld, or pass out on his bed. Instead, his head snapped forward to the sound of a voice interrupting- “I can show the new guy around with you.”

  Solace. Will Solace. Nico remembered him from around the campgrounds, in the last Great Battle against the Titans… He was brave. He healed others. He had a nice laugh and an easygoing care about him and a sunny smile. He was everything Nico wasn’t, and he kind of hated him for that.

 His hair was also a very unnecessary illuminated shade of gold. It was as calming as it was painfully bright.

 And when Nico’s eyes snapped up to Will’s, he noticed that his eyes, too, were a painfully light blue.

 "Maybe you should do it on your own,“ Nico eyes flickered away for a moment before resting on the spot just above Will’s eyes- his forehead, a much less distracting feature. "I have some… business to take care of.”

 There was silence, and then Nico saw Will furrow his eyebrows. Will’d been leaning against the table, but after a moment, he leaned up and took a step forwards. He was wearing this light river blue t-shirt that just came into Nico’s attention.

 Some people had stopped messing around with lighter fluid and towels and started to pay attention, which was abnormal. Will somehow had managed to command some focus without making it a big, dramatic change. 

 "What type of business, exactly?“ Will hummed, very casually. A spark seemed to go off in his eye.

 "Business that’s not yours,” Nico snapped back, knowing that he shouldn’t blame Will, knowing that he shouldn’t get annoyed at a guy who’d just done something good for him, but also knowing that this boy was starting to get on his nerves. Will beamed, to make things worse.

 He looked at Chiron thoughtfully. “Well, I’m sure your  _important_  business can wait an hour, then, if you can’t even tell us what it’s about. I’ll be seeing you outside once the meeting’s over. We can meet what’s-his-face-”

 " _No_ ,“ the word flew out of Nico’s mouth. Something about Will was irking him, pulling at his stomach, making something weird still in his pulse. And he decided he hated it. He was not doing this tour. No matter what. 

 "Why can’t you go alone? Two people might… overwhelm the guy.”

 "Girl,“ Chiron put in.

 "Girl,” Nico self-corrected, putting on a fake smile. It felt like a grimace, but he pressed on. “And I think it’s pretty obvious that… Well. Out of the two of us, you would be a… sunnier face to be greeted with.”

 That got laughs, and Nico blinked.

 Chiron had seemed to take a step back, allowing Nico and Will to work it out for themselves. And it seemed as though… maybe, Nico had managed to get out of it.

  Will was thrown off guard only for a second before starting to grin. Full-on grin, with a huge smile from cheek to cheek. It did something to Nico. 

 "I’m just a healer,“ Will put his hands up, raising his eyebrows innocently. "You’ve been out there more than I have. She’s going to have a ton of questions about monsters that only you can answer.”

 Nico snorted in response. Will widened his eyes in exaggeration. “No, it’s true! The girl’s going to need to know what’s in camp, sure, but we’re in a war. What’s going on outside of camp… that’s the real stuff she needs to know about. We’ll have to hit her with the hard truth.”

 A flash of memory arced into Nico’s brain with a fiery electricity. The camp… when he had first come to camp, not knowing what he was getting into, actually thinking it’d be cool, that it’d be fun…

 Pangs of bitterness and hurt poked Nico in the heart every time he thought back to his old self: how happy he’d been with Bianca. How great his life was before all of this butted in. Well… it hadn’t been great, obviously, but nevertheless: he was happy. He was oblivious. He thought life was just a big, fun game. 

 How wrong he was.

  He tried to shake those thoughts off, his brain sliding on autopilot towards a different event that’d happened the same day he arrived at camp…

 " _Apollo is hot_ ,“ Thalia had said.  
  _"He’s the sun god.”_  
  _“That’s not what I meant.”_

 "Nico?“ the son of the hot- the son of the sun- 

 Gods, Gods, Gods, his brain, why did he have no control over his brain, over these thoughts-

 Nico’s cheeks felt like blazing, but he just barely managed to keep the temperature in his face down.

 "You’ve been here longer.” Nico retaliated. “She doesn’t need two people-”

 Will leaned forward. Before today, Nico hadn’t even realized Will knew his name. And now… This?

 "You’d relate to her better. You probably remember feeling lost, like you don’t have a place in the world… That happened to you more recently than it did to me-“

 "I don’t relate to people,” Nico let his words whip out and slice Will’s sentence before it could finish, wanting to scream.  _How can he even try to understand what I’ve been through_?

 The conversation was escalating. “Good time to practice.”

 "I have some business to take care of-“

 "That again? Really?”

 "Yes, that again. Maybe you haven’t noticed, but we’re in the middle of a war-“

 "Even more of a reason to take a break for two hours and form a bond. It’s healthy-”

 "War waits for no one. And people don’t form bonds with me-“

 "Because you won’t let them?”

 "Because- no. No. So far from the tru- Gods, no. You do not understand. At all.“ 

 "Imagine this girl, right? Foreign to camp… scared… feeling alone…”

 Nico threw his hands up, turning away, and Will tried to coax him back. “No, hear me out, Death Boy. This girl, she…”

  There was a chilling, deafening silence underneath Will’s rambling sentences as Nico froze. He whipped around, his cheeks and expression a blank slate, his eyes contorted in rage. “What?" 

  Ice and fire filled the word, more of a statement than a question.

 "Sorry about that. Needed to get your attention. Anyways, this girl-”

 "Needed… to get my- out of all-“

  "You’re missing the point. So, this girl, this poor new camper you’re leaving by herself, she comes to camp-”

 "I’m going to  _kill_  you. I will  _kill_  you, I swear to the gods-“

 ”-And she’s hurt, angry… She doesn’t want to see the overbearing grin that I wear-“

 "I can’t listen to this.”

  “She wants to see the understanding boy dressed in black.”

 "You are  _infuriating_.“

  "The one called… what’s his name again? Nico? The solemn one. The  _cute_  one. That one. She wants to see  _him_.”

  Will sounded sincere, but he had to be joking. He just had to be. The  _cute one_? Yeah. Right. 

 But… maybe it wasn’t? Some people chuckled like it was a joke, yeah, but mostly everyone in the room was oohing, big grins on their faces, like Will  _meant it_ \- and the words- “The cute one” were still ringing in Nico’s ears, no matter how hard he tried to stop it-

 Nico won’t obsess over it. He refuses to obsess over it.

 But- cute?

 And the way Will said it…

 Nico tried to speak and ending up making a strangled noise in his throat.

  Will grinned.

 He knew he had Nico cornered.

  Nico managed, “I am not- don’t twist the truth, Solace- not going to work-”

 "What am I twisting? You’re…  _interesting_. You’re likable.“

 Everyone ooh-ed quietly, again, the Stoll brothers hooting before someone whacked them in the arm. Nico was pretty sure it was Clarisse, or Will himself.

 "I am not- Not interesting-” Nico couldn’t finish his thoughts.

  Will waited as Nico fumbled with his words, stumbling off. The mood had lightened from the dripping tension the air held before. Nico’s voice faded out as his ears grew red. People began smiling and faintly talking again.

 Nico managed to bite out, in a last attempt to win a failed battle- “I am not  _likable_.”

 Will took a long pause. Nico realized that Will’s eyes were really too blue, too bright, too much. They were annoying.  _He_  was annoying.

 Will, after catching Nico’s stare and holding it, stated teasingly, “You are to me.”

 People laughed, in the room, as they watched Nico fall into a burning fit of silence. Some people yelled at Will to stop flirting, and Nico fell even more.  
 He wanted to hide, or run away, or crawl back into the Underworld. He knew where this was going, knew this feeling, saw flashes of Percy, even as his brain went, No. No. No, no, no no no.

 And it was terrifying.

 He was terrified.

 Will waited a minute for Nico to respond if he wanted to before announcing, “Okay, then. So that’s decided. I’ll find you after this meeting ends, okay?" 

 And even while looking away, Nico somehow knew that Will’s eyes were still facing him.

 And also that maybe the reason why Will irked him so much was the fact that Will didn’t really irk him that much after all.

 Except that Nico’d never be able to admit it.


End file.
